“YOU can tell the world Lee is not a scam!”
So wrote Katie Price’s new husband, Lee Andrews, in a WhatsApp to me on May 1st.
The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie gave £1,000 to Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews to invest… and it’s yet to be returned Credit: mistraesthetics/Instagram
Clemmie says it seems Lee Andrews was just using her friendship with Katie as bait to lure her further into his scam Credit: Louis Wood
“Freaken’ insulting, conman!” he added, furious by unedifying accusations he was a con artist on the make.
Eight days later, he had unashamedly pocketed £1,000 from me. Money yet to be returned.
But I am just the latest victim in a long line of women – or “international mastermind criminal” as he once referred to himself – has brazenly duped.
I can also reveal that the Dubai-based businessman is now wanted by Interpol, after Herts police – who had been previously investigating claims from an ex-girlfriend – escalated their case.
In addition, ; he is simply in hiding after also ghosting his devastated wife for the past six days.
He is not dead. He is not in jail. And he has not been detained.
Instead he is squatting in a slightly run-down villa, frantically planning a route out of this ginormous hole he appears to have buried himself in, and is understood to be liaising with his few trusted contacts on a “burner phone”.
And he claims to have bought outright in cash? A rental.
Welcome to the wild, wild west – well, middle east – of self-proclaimed, “multi-millionaire doctor” .
As I shall explain in the next 1,000 or so words, this man pleaded with me to go in on a “zero risk” investment plan, and transfer funds directly into his personal account.
Unfortunately for this international mastermind criminal, he scammed the wrong woman.
By sharing my experience now, I hope to give a voice to the countless women who say this man previously swindled them. So how did this lunacy all start?
Having veritably bombarded Clemmie with messages, our Assistant Editor’s last 10 messages to Lee have been blanked Credit: The Sun
Well, as a pal of Katie, naturally I took a keen interest in her new husband, a chap she .
I really liked him. He was warm, quick-witted, thoughtful, and generous to a fault: no favour too big or small, no kindness too much.
Then again, sociopaths do tend to be rather charming.
Yet in the aftermath of their whirlwind romance which started in January, numerous damning claims emerged about the new Mr Price.
Texan nurse told The Sun she’d been hoodwinked into putting £123,000 in one of Lee’s schemes on the promise of getting £1million back – only to lose it all.
His ex-fiancée – the woman whom Lee had proposed to over rose petals and champagne five weeks before re-hashing the method with Katie – branded Lee a manipulative “narcissist” who she says feigned a life limiting heart condition in order to garner sympathy.
When my colleague, brilliant Bizarre Editor Ellie Henman, continued with the alarming revelations, Lee threatened her with arrest, and twice said he would get her sacked.
Meanwhile, an alleged travel ban following a stint in prison for fraud means Lee cannot leave the country.
This was something two million viewers witnessed in excruciating real time live on Good Morning Britain this time last week. as presenters informed her a man had been “detained” at the airport.
Still, loyal Katie went out to bat for him, insisting Lee wasn’t banned and was making his way over to the UK.
A week later, and Lee is nowhere to be seen. More Walter S****y than Mitty, he was last seen hands tied together and masked, telling his new wife he’d been kidnapped. (Guys, if you’re reading this: feel free to keep him.)
So, against such a backdrop catalogue – and with a which saw him claim to be a member of the Board of Advisers for Labour, and a King’s Trust Ambassador – I handed over the metaphorical keys to my bank account.
Lee said the investment would do well and it would prove it’s not a scam Credit: The Sun
Clemmie got ‘proof’ of a ‘one-off’ bank transfer for £2,900 due to hit on 15th May… but it did not hit Credit: The Sun
By this stage, we’d spent weeks chatting away. We’d traded fitness tips – the plan was to do a gruelling Hyrox gym comp together in July – swapped gym selfies, and had three-way bants with Katie.
In fact, we became so close Lee took to calling me the couple’s “third wheel.” (Sweetly, we even changed the emojis on our saved WhatsApp names for one another to that of a car tyre.)
Within time, generous Lee was more than keen to help me out and casually suggested I pop £5,000 into a “Treasury investment” alongside him and Katie. They would fork out the remaining £50,000 and there was, he assured me, “zero risk Clems”.
He pledged a $48,000 return after four weeks. He sent me a five-page “trading schedule”, which, granted, had a whiff of about it, promising “payment guarantee issued same day”, alongside a fist pump emoji.
He then sent a photograph of him holding a cheque for four
million Dirham (AED) (£814,000) followed by a screenshot showing it deposited into his account.
Despite pushing me to invest more, I ended up saying I could only afford £1.000. He reckoned I’d end up with at least £3,000 in seven days – which certainly beat my 0% interest current account.
Rockerfeller, I am not. Needless to say, as I sit here writing this 19 days on, I have not seen a single penny.
Naively, I figured if there was one person Lee Andrews would not con it would be the Assistant Editor of The Sun, and his wife’s mate.
As a pal of Katie, Clemmie naturally took a keen interest in her new husband Credit: The Sun
The Dubai-based businessman is now wanted by Interpol Credit: BackGrid
I underestimated his stupidity, and gall. On May 1st, then, I transferred £1,000 directly into Lee’s Revolut bank account (which he spelled “Revalut”). In a follow-up voice note, Lee remarked that he’d enjoyed a windfall, adding: “yes, don’t worry, have given Katie half!”.
When I asked Katie about his claims, she admitted he kept promising her money – even showing her cheques he was depositing into her account – but, like me, the money never appeared.
To be clear, – who was genuinely mortified when I told her what Lee had done – had absolutely no idea about his scheming. She also did not give him any of her own money, she insists.
However, I can reveal a loaded credit card he gave her did not work, she suggests; he had given her an incorrect PIN code. In truth, then, it seems Lee was just using our friendship as bait to lure me further into his scam.
In the days after I sent this hard-grifting chancer my money, I simply left him to it. After all, this man, as far as he showed me, was a veritable investment whizz kid. Wasn’t there a PHD from Cambridge? One with watermarks? And wax stamps! I even had all the official paperwork from our joint venture to prove its worth.
A week later, on May 8th – the day I was expecting my cash to go through – the gobbledygook began. At 5.24pm, Lee voice-noted me: “So the stock market took a right f***ing turn but at least they covered it. It’s in a Treasury trade so it didn’t quite make the £3,500 but it made £2.9k, and you’re still rolling into next week so that’s good news. And you’ve recovered your principal amount and also profited. I will send you a balance pay-out sheet.”
I did not get a “pay-out sheet” that night. Almost two hours later, he sent me another voice note to tell me he wasn’t returning to the UK with Katie as planned. “I’ve had other trade cheques come in locally, which is Abu Dhabi,”
Lee told me. “It’s Abu Dhabi global which follows the English common law, so it’s like Wall Street in America.
A loaded credit card Lee gave Katie did not work, but he apparently had given her an incorrect PIN code Credit: Getty
Katie Price was horrified by Clemmie’s revelations and wanted them exposed if it means helping tracking Lee down Credit: Dan Charity
“Canary Wharf is what I am thinking of. I have deposited one and it’s quite a good one and I am doing another on Sunday. I am flying Sunday night, once I have put that in the bank you can still deposit through the machine.
“It’s just the date of the cheque is post-dated until the tenth. Sunday is the ninth, so if I do it at night time, method in my madness, it will go in.”
No idea, either. Monday rolled around and I received another message, this time at 2:13pm.
“The pennies will be in your account by tonight,” Lee promised. The pennies were not in my account at midnight.
After nothing materialised overnight, I politely asked for an update. Lee, once again, assured me my money was coming, writing in a text: “I’ll send your remittance it’s £2,850 and be on account latest today.”
Chirpily, he added: “I have not stiffed you on any pennies.”
Determined, I pushed back and Lee gave me a glimmer of hope, asking for my bank details. A few hours later though, we hit a stumbling block as Lee sent a screenshot of my incorrectly entered bank details.
I swiftly corrected him, and he “tried” again. This time I got “proof” of a “one-off” bank transfer for £2,900 due to hit on 15th May. It did not hit.
Lee had pledged a $48,000 return after four weeks Timeline of Katie and Lee's romance
January
Katie married Lee Andrews just weeks after splitting from JJ Slater. She revealed they met in person on 21 January – four days before the wedding – after meeting online.
Days later Katie returned to the UK alone and speculation Lee was unable to leave Dubai due to a travel ban started, with it claimed he ‘took out a £200k loan in an ex-girlfriend’s name’ – something he’s repeatedly denied.
February
Lee continued to refute claims of a travel ban and insisted he and Katie would be going on their honeymoon. But instead she returned to Dubai with pal Kerry Katona and her boyfriend Paolo Margaglione.
The Sun later revealed Lee punched Paolo during a bust-up during the holiday.
Katie claimed she was pregnant with Lee’s child during a bitter social media attack on his ex Alana Percival.
The couple tied the knot for a second time on 22 February, after it was revealed their first wedding wasn’t legally binding.
After days of speculation, Katie confirmed she was not pregnant but insisted she would be “soon”.
Katie later returned to the UK to face her family following reports they were “furious” and seriously concerned about her relationship with Lee.
March
Katie showed off a tattoo tribute to Lee, getting his name etched on her wedding finger. He got her eldest son Harvey’s name tattooed on his hand – despite having never met him.
She later flaunted her huge new engagement ring from Lee after rumours swirled that the first one he’d given her was the same ring used to propose to his ex wife Dina Taji.
April
Katie hinted that Lee does have a travel ban when asked by her sister on their podcast.
She said: “Do you know what? Everyone has said to me you can get a travel ban over anything in Dubai.”
Days later Katie revealed a shocking tattoo reading ‘owned by Lee’ on her ribcage.
May
Katie was left humiliated when Lee was once again a no-show in the UK, forcing her to face a live GMB interview solo.
It was claimed that he’d been detained in Dubai, with Susanna Reid and telling how they had approached the to see if Lee had a travel ban.
They said they had been informed they had “supported a British man detained in the ”.
She later slammed him for “making her look like a d**k”.
In a shocking twist, Katie took to social media days later to claim Lee had been “kidnapped” and confessed she hadn’t heard from him for three days.
Explaining the police could not find any record of him being detained, she insisted he was a “missing person” and revealed the last time she spoke to him, he had “ties around his hand and was in a van” with a “hood over his head”.
The Sun then revealed Lee had been officially declared a “missing person”, after a report was lodged by his family at the British Embassy in .
Having veritably bombarded me with messages, and reassuring updates
about just how well my “investment” was doing – “it’s still in reason that’s the goodest news” – now my WhatsApps are being met by stony silence.
Indeed, my last 10 messages have been blanked. My last plaintive message to him, sent at 18.51 on Sunday evening, read: “Where is my money?” It was met by a single grey tick, meaning I’d most likely been blocked.
Before publishing this investigation, I of course informed Katie. Thousands of social media commentators are convinced she is “in on the ruse”.
Categorically she is not. It also transpires he has “ghosted” her, and she says she fears she may never hear from him again. Indeed, heartbroken Katie has been on the phone to lawyers over the past 24 hours seeking consul.
She was horrified by my revelations, and wanted them exposed if it means helping tracking Lee down – and, crucially, ensuring he never hurts another woman again.
Of course, in exposing Lee in this manner, I am one of the lucky ones. But con artists like him are capable of destroying lives and causing real, irreparable damage.
I really hope, in reading this, Katie sees sense, and calls time on her . She is one of the most loyal, ambitious and hardworking people I know.
People in the UK really care about her, and have grown up with her. No-one wants to see her fail. We all want her to find her happy ever after. It takes a brave woman to walk away from love. But she is a canny businesswoman, and will not let this man tarnish her brand any more than he already threatens to.
But if he can take my money, he can take anyone’s. Including hers. I can see why so many women have fallen for his charms. (Still, I keep hitting refresh on my banking app to check the money isn’t there, wanting to see the best in him.)
Lee displayed real moments of kindness and sincerity. He’d send endlessly supportive messages, enquire about my parents, and repeatedly tell me how in love with Katie he truly was.
Before going AWOL, Lee treated Katie well, , gifting her with designer jewellery, and paying for Business Class flights. I am told she is considering getting her £35,000 Hublot watch inspected to see if it’s real. (I have my suspicions).
In Lee – a man who openly uses AI to fake photos and images – she thought she had found the complete package. Her golden ticket.
Alas Lee Andrews is less Willy Wonka, more Willy Plonker.
Katie, if you’re reading this, I am begging you to get out. NOW.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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